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Sunday, November 13, 2016

Working with your hands is soothing

Let's talk about artwork shall we? I need a break from worry.
Our wee family of two got in the car Saturday and went to three quilt stores on the shop hop. We started at Bear's Paw (sorry no purchases this time despite wanting one of each, please)
The above picture is my hexie quilt, still in progress. My take along quilt that's now King Sized! Final border blocks going on this section.
I pin them in place with safety pins to travel. I bought plastic inserts a long time ago and when it grew so large I began cutting my own templates out of food lids. I really, REALLY like doing hexies this way.

We moved on to Patches in Mt. Airy and I gave in to the siren song that fabric sings buying these fat quarters

Check out the dogs! the snowflakes have silver metallic snowflakes embossed. The moons with beads. The most entertaining one is the musical hip cats...

These musicians are cool baby! Hep Cats!
We had lunch at Cracker Barrel and took a long walk in a town we like a lot. Pictures of that adventure to follow this week. For now, more fabric and handwork..
We finished the day, fighting DC traffic to get to Great Falls VA and Jinny Beyer Studio.
This is how it looked at 5:10 pm

welcome and come right in!

"One yard of each please" is what I wish I could say. Jinny and her staff are always kind and welcoming. As if I didn't have enough reasons to admire Ginny... a very accomplished pattern and fabric designer, a business woman, a great teacher, and a kind person... I was reminded of her great love of dogs. She has always welcomed our boy Cole in to say hi to the ladies, and he loved her.

Her eyes are very expressive and she looks at you when you speak... when I told her we lost Cole, she began to tear up, and then I cried again with the loss of such a good boy.
She took time at the end of a very busy day, at the end of a busy event, to share our love of our dogs. She cried with me.

I asked after her baby, now a three year old black lab. He's "great and so smart" she shared, "he seems to just know where I am in the house at all times"

I did want a yard of all fabrics, and one of each kits but left with these two one yard cuts of sale fabric

Color! Glorious color! And pattern. I also got the little light up magnifier for my purse, to help me see better

A few items I made by hand this week include this bracelet...

My talented friend Cindy showed me how to do the herringbone stitch with beads and crystals.
It feels good to learn something, and wear something I made.
Fall colors, using the leftover crystals from my last bracelet.
A server at the restaurant cooed over it and wanted one too. It's fun to wear something you make.
In fact I'm still toting around my Halloween tote.

I also got out some fat knitting needles and used this really fluffy hairy yarn. No idea what it would be, and just started knitting. It's soothing to feel soft things. It is too short for a scarf, but could be joined into a circle to slip over my ears on a walk.

There is nothing like fabric therapy! Even if you never cut into it - there is definitely something about fondling new fabric purchases and dreaming about what you might make that is so soothing. And how lovely for you to have some time with a person who knew Cole and loved him, too.

Wasn't the shop hop fun! My friends and I came up from South Carolina and rode the Jinny Beyer bus for two days. We really loved seeing the variety of shops available. Wish we had them all in our area.

So glad you took time to take the hop trip and sooth your sole a bit. I agree - repetitive motions and touching soft things is very soothing and relaxing. No thinking just the feel of fabric or yarn to ease the troubles. Hugs my friend.

You are just so talented...quilt art bead art, knitting art, and making me cry for a beautiful fur soul I've never met! I had to tear up when you were talking about you and Ginny crying together about your loss. I love the fabrics you picked up! I just got some cute things yesterday to make pillow cases for my niece and nephews for Christmas.

That is some hexie quilt - where have you been hiding it?? Sounds like a really fun shop hop. You're so lucky to be near the Jinny Beyer Studio - love her fabrics, and her books. Thanks so much for sharing your in progress pics on Midweek Makers - always a pleasure to see what you're up to!

Oh Im glad you were able to distract yourself from worry. :( LOVE that dog fabric!! Yes, sometimes we jut need to create with no outcome intended....to just enjoy the process and free ourselves from whatever is ailing us. :)

I saw this at Love, Laugh, Quilt and just had to comment! I found you again! Your projects are great, as well as your descriptive writing and tender heart! I'm also making a hexie quilt - well my daughter and I are - it's a Grandmother's Flower Garden. I love the repetitiveness of some crafts as well - so warm and comforting. Maybe that's why I crocheted so much during 2015? :) Thank you for sharing!

Creation therapy. I think that is why I have so many unfinished things. Because I just enjoy the making and the doing and don't always need to finish. Especially with my non-quilting crafts. Doing crochet or cross-stitch work always relaxes me.And I just LOVE that red and teal yardage. I don't recognize it, do you have the name?

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When asked “Why a Poodle?” the late Anne Rogers Clark (the first woman to win Best inShow at Westminster) often replied: “They are Labradors with college educations. Aftera day of retrieving, your Lab wants to curl up in front of the fireplace and take a welldeserved nap. A Poodle wants to be fourth at the bridge table and tell naughty stories!”

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